Yet Another Great Fireball Above Oregon / Washington - And Why So Many Lately

Published 03/30/26 at 12:45 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Portland, Oregon) - From the majority of the western halves of Washington and Oregon, through to British Columbia, reports flowed in of yet another major fireball in the skies. They came into the American Meteor Society (AMS), which collects and collates meteor and fireball sightings throughout the globe. So far, at least 86 have been documented from the three areas, ranging from as far south as Eugene, over to the north Oregon coast and up into Washington and southern Canada. (Above: photo from Seattle courtesy AMS)

It was described as bright orange, going SE to NW at 8:36 p.m. Pacific Time.

Some video and one photo so far have come in from Seattle. This all comes just a week after two other major incidents in the region. Two Fireballs Hit West Coast Skies in Oregon, Washington, California - Captured on Video - One at 8:19 pm, second at 6:06 am

The AMS also recently revealed why we've seen more than usual lately.

These are meteors, essentially, but get classified as fireballs if they burn out in a long trail lasting more than a second or two – more than the brief streaks you see with meteors.

Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff saw two only two years apart – and almost exactly to the day and hour. That is considered an extremely lucky circumstance. From 2023, See Spectacular Green Fireball Lights Up Oregon Valley Through Washington Coast From bright white to a neon green: astronomers weigh in

Jim Todd, astronomy expert with Portland's OMSI, said some were reporting a blue tinge to this fireball.

“Red or orange can sometimes come from the ionization of atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen at high altitudes,” Todd said. “While iron is typically associated with yellow, it can also produce orange-yellow tones. The presence of silicates can also produce an orange color.”

A blue fireball would be more of a magnesium content – maybe copper, Todd told Oregon Coast Beach Connection.

At left: fireball above Lincoln City a few years back. Graphic: map of sightings from this fireball on Saturday

Among the reports from Oregon were: Beaverton, Tualatin, Boring, Gervais, Dayton, Salem, Stayton, Eugene, Willamina, Tygh Valley, Lebanon, Albany, Corvallis and Warrenton on the Oregon coast.

On March 28, there were 86 fireball reports from Oregon and Washington. On March 26, one event generated 115 reports from Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina and nearby states, while another produced 35 reports from Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. On March 23, one fireball drew 151 reports across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio; another produced 58 reports in Europe; and a separate Midwest event generated 146 reports the same day in Oregon and Washington as well as east of here.

So why are there so many recently?

Mike Hankey is operations manager at the AMS, and he looked into the stats on what is going on with all these fireballs lately. Everyone is asking: is fireball activity actually up?

“The short answer: yes, it’s up — and the data tells us something interesting about why,” he said online.

Large fireball events are defined as those with 50 or more witnesses, and these – he said - have roughly doubled in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the five-year average. Yet the overall number of fireballs is about typical. In other words, we’re not being hit by more objects - we’re seeing more that are big enough to stand out.

Much of this comes down to the angle that they're approaching and hitting us. Our Earth is angled just right so that these objects make a shallower entry. That's where the fireworks begin.

“Our radiant analysis shows the increase is concentrated around the Anthelion source — the region of sky directly opposite the Sun,” he said on the AMS site. “These are asteroidal objects on orbits similar to Earth’s, moving in the same direction we are. When they encounter Earth, our orbital velocity is effectively subtracted from theirs, so they enter the atmosphere at relatively low speeds. Slower entry means the meteor lasts longer in the sky, is visible over a wider area, produces sonic booms more often, and more material survives to reach the ground as meteorites. That’s exactly what we’ve been seeing - including two rare HED achondrite falls (Germany and Ohio) in just nine days.”

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